With the coming of the Civil War, he helped form the 15th Alabama Regiment and was elected its colonel. The regiment participated in Stonewall Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign where they showed great valor during the Battle of Cross Keys.
They were still with Jackson during the Seven Days Battles around Richmond. After that, he was detached and served around Mobile, Alabama, from January 1863 to April 1864. where he organized a brigade consisting of three Alabama and one Mississippi regiment.
They were transferred to the Army of Tennessee and appointed brigadier general. He was frequently absent from duty because of sickness. His brigade fought in the Atlanta Campaign and in Hood's Franklin-Nashville debacle.
Cantey and his brigade fought at the Battle of Bentonville in the closing days of the war and surrendered with Johnston's forces at Durham Station.
After the war, he returned to his plantation near Fort Mitchell, Alabama. He died at his plantation on June 30, 1874, and is buried in the Crowell Family Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.
--Old Secesh
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